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Hi
Has anyone ever joined a French flying club?(presuming that you are from the UK).
I am in the fortunate position of being able to stay in France about 4 or 5 days every month and was thinking that it may be advantageous for me to join a French club as well. Any experiences/problems? Abbeville or Eu/Le Treport are the closest fields I know of.
REX
Aerobatic Flyer
10th Feb 2003, 20:06
Yes - I belong to two French clubs.
I have a UK licence and have had no problems at all. The club checkout involved a brief circuit / general handling check, followed by a cross-country to show that I could navigate and to familiarise me with French language RT. It will help a lot of you speak reasonable French.
Almost all clubs in France are affiliated with the FNA (Fedération Nationale des Aéroclubs). This provides insurance, and a good monthly magazine called Info Pilote - of which the best bit is usually the Bernard Chabbert column, sorely missed in Pilot magazine. It probably helps if you have a French address, as I don't know if they are geared up to overseas membership. When you join, you will have to pay club membership, FNA membership, often a club "first time joining" fee and sometimes an up-front payment into your flying account.
French clubs are usually non-profit flying groups, and can therefore operate homebuilt and non-public transport aircraft. By far the most ubiquitous type is the Robin DR400, which is nice to fly.
Rates are usually a lot cheaper than the UK. I pay the equivalent of £70 per hour for a 160hp DR400, and £50 for a small Jodel.... Compared to the UK, it is incredibly cheap.
Check out the FNA website on http://www.fna.asso.fr/ . The site has just been revamped, and is full of useful information (in French).
2Donkeys
10th Feb 2003, 23:53
Almost all clubs in France are affiliated with the FNA (Fedération Nationale des Aéroclubs).
All good information. Just a small point though, the FNA is the "Fédération Nationale Aéronautique".
In times past when I have joined French Aeroclubs, the check-out has been cursory. As AF says, if you already speak French, you are onto a winner.
Aerobatic Flyer
11th Feb 2003, 07:29
Quite right..... aéronautique it is.:O
I was too absorbed in trying to get an "é" out of an English keyboard to notice what I was writing!
Thanks folks,
My French is not brilliant to say the least, but will get better with practice.
I had wondered whether it was as cheap as the advertisement at Eu. A "Bapteme de l'Air" advertised at silly€ almost made me fall over. Certainly seems a cheap way to build hours and tour the country, perhaps other parts of Europe.
The French address is no problem as I own a house over there (By the way these are also incredible value for anyone interested in the Gallic lifestyle or are fed up with Blair Britain). I think I will nip over to Abbeville next month.
:) REX
2Donkeys
11th Feb 2003, 08:35
The "Baptemes" are almost always relatively short joy-rides designed to encourage people into the world of flying, so are normally priced to please.
Its worth remembering though that the world of French flying clubs is very different from our own. Frequently, they will have very few aircraft, and the typical flight profile will be a few touch and goes, or a visit to another local field. The concept of long range touring (even around France) is not common, and many clubs will not look favourably on a new member seeking to steal one of their aircraft away for any kind of extended period of touring.
Aerobatic Flyer
11th Feb 2003, 10:12
Very true in the majority of cases. Also the average French aéroclub aircraft has very limited navigation kit, compared to the UK.
However, there are plenty of exceptions - and some clubs are geared much more towards touring than local flying. On the FNA website, there is a search option that lets you find a club that has the plane you want to fly. Want a Bonanza? A Mooney? TB20? A Bucker Jungmann? A Harvard? They're all there to be had.